Reykjavík Grapevine - 05.02.2016, Qupperneq 12

Meet the
men behind
Iceland’s thriving
black metal scene
Welcome
To The
Circle
Hafsteinn Viðar, the man be-
hind the solo black metal project
Wormlust, requested that our in-
terview take place at the Cathe-
dral of Christ the King, prefer-
ably in the confessional.

If the confessional was unavailable, he
said, then we could perhaps walk to-
gether in the nearby cemetery. “Black
metal is the most beautiful sound in the
world if you give it the chance,” he whis-
pers carefully as we sit in the pews. “I
see it as celestial, but discordant.” With
his face turned towards the ground and
an encyclopaedic knowledge of not only
black metal but also art and philosophy,
Hafsteinn is the troubled-artist stereo-
type made flesh. He’s sweet and kind,
yet a clear introvert. Even in the spa-
cious cathedral, I feel like I’m infring-
ing on him. Along with every other band
interviewed, Hafsteinn only agreed to
be in this piece if his full name was not
mentioned. One has to wonder why.
If Hafsteinn is the troubled artist,
then Sturla Viðar, leader of veteran black
metal band Svartidauði, is easily the
rock star. “Some people will say it’s just
artistic expression,” Sturla says with an
easy confidence, laying out the founda-
tions of his belief system, “but I don’t
think you should be allowed to form a
black metal band without having been in
a fight or in trouble with the law.” We’re
sitting on a couch in his dark apartment.
He hands me a beer and lights a ciga-
rette. “Look, I’m not saying that you have
to go out and sell heroin to kids or burn
down a church or a school or whatever.
Just practice what you preach!” Sturla is
intense and opinionated, but he’s likable,
and charming in that Charles Manson
kind of way. He smiles. “Then we just
end up with suburban white anthropol-
ogists and a bunch of scholarly articles
on church burnings.” With a sip of his
beer, he raises his eyebrows at me.
The boys of Auðn invite me to their
practice space. Andri B., their guitarist
and composer, proudly declares, “The
most important thing in black metal is
this ideology: Do whatever the fuck you
want, and if you don’t like it, fuck you,
I’m going to do it anyway.” Auðn are
rarely invited to play with other Icelan-
dic black metal bands. Without question,
they are the outsiders of the already-
outsider Icelandic black metal commu-
by HANNAH JANE COHEN photos by HAFSTEINN VIÐAR